Security Systems News - NFSAhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/taxonomy/term/2013
enNew York fire sprinkler laws to help public, industryhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/new-york-fire-sprinkler-laws-help-public-industry
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2014-09-10T00:00:00-04:00">09/10/2014</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>PATTERSON, N.Y.—New fire sprinkler legislation signed into law this summer in New York state will not only protect the public but could lead to increased business and perhaps state licensing for sprinkler contractors, according to a National Fire Sprinkler Association spokesman.</p>
<p>“It’s a step forward,” Dominick Kasmauskas, New York regional manager for the NFSA, which is based here, said regarding the two new laws signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo in August.</p>
<p>One requires landlords to include prominent information in the leases they give prospective residential tenants on whether or not their rental premises have fire sprinkler systems. The other bill requires builders to give buyers of one and two-family homes information on the installation and maintenance of fire sprinkler systems.</p>
<p>Kasmauskas said, “There’s a brochure being prepared by the state fire administrator’s office in New York. It’s basically going to be a Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition pamphlet with New York contact information on it, and the builder is going to have to supply that to new home buyers as well as provide information about cost and contract with somebody to put the system in.”</p>
<p>According to news reports, Cuomo said when signing the legislation: “We have witnessed far too much senseless tragedy caused by avoidable fires. These new protections will give New Yorkers more information about the homes they choose to live in, which will allow them to make decisions on how to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.”</p>
<p>Kasmauskas praised the governor’s comments, saying they’re helpful to the public and industry in getting the word out about fire sprinklers. “It’s clear he stands behind modern technology in fire safety,” Kasmauskas said.</p>
<p>He continued: “It’s a constant educational process for fire sprinkler systems, whether on the commercial or residential side, and I think more and more people are starting to listen to us and [realize that], rather than being a sub-trade, people are starting to recognize that the sprinkler industry has specific [expertise] and I hope that will help licensure come about.”</p>
<p>He explained that there is no licensing requirement for fire sprinkler contractors in New York State. “The scary thing is that untrained people, in other trades that are not knowledgeable in fire sprinkler work, … [think that] because they have a pickup truck and a pipe rack and a toolbox, they can go and do sprinklers.”</p>
<p>He said, “The NFSA has introduced licensure bills several times in the state of New York, fully backed by the fire sprinkler industry …but it hasn't gone anywhere.”</p>
<p>But he said there likely will be another attempt in 2015 to pass such a licensing measure. He’s hoping the new laws could help by creating more awareness of the fact that “where there are fire sprinklers, we need to make sure they’ve been competently designed, competently installed and are properly maintained per the New York state fire code.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="New York fire sprinkler laws to help public, industry" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 10 Sep 2014 16:54:39 +0000Tess Nacelewicz17785 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/new-york-fire-sprinkler-laws-help-public-industry#commentsMaryland mandates residential fire sprinklershttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/maryland-mandates-residential-fire-sprinklers
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<div class="field-item even">The NFSA was one of the groups working to get the legislation passed</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-05-21T00:00:00-04:00">05/21/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>PATTERSON, N.Y.—New homes built in Maryland will be required to have fire sprinklers beginning this fall, the result of new legislation signed into law by that state’s governor May 2.</p>
<p>The National Fire Sprinkler Association, based here, was part of a years-long effort to get such a requirement approved. The NFSA recently announced the development on its website, saying, “Congratulations to all who worked so hard to get this legislation passed. Our hats are off to Gov. [Martin] O’Malley for making the safety of Maryland’s citizens a top priority.”</p>
<p>O’Malley signed legislation that amends the current Maryland Building Performance Standards to prohibit local jurisdictions from excluding automatic fire sprinkler system requirements for townhouses and one- and two-family dwellings.</p>
<p>Doug Alexander, a firefighter who helped spearhead the effort as chairman for many years of the Residential Sprinkler Committee of the Maryland State Firemen’s Association, told <em>Security Systems News </em>that the governor’s action “essentially … is going to require any homes built in the state of Maryland after Oct. 1 to have residential fire sprinklers.”</p>
<p>Alexander said the law’s only exception was for homes that don’t have electricity, which he said was included accommodate the Amish population in Maryland, who shun many aspects of modern life.</p>
<p>The state this year adopted the 2012 edition of the International Residential Code as part of its building performance standards, Alexander said. The IRC requires fire sprinklers in new homes, he said.</p>
<p>However, he said, Maryland state law allowed municipalities to opt out of any provision of the building standards, except for provisions having to do with energy conservation and efficiency.</p>
<p>So, Alexander said, “this year the bill we introduced and was passed through both houses of the Legislature and was signed by the governor added another paragraph … that would not allow [local communities] to opt out of the residential sprinkler standards contained in the IRC.”</p>
<p>A number of organizations worked with the state firemen’s association over the years in pushing for requiring residential sprinklers, the NFSA among them, Alexander said. “The NFSA got on board and provided everything they could,” he said. “If we gave them a call, they found a way to support us in one way or another.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Maryland mandates residential fire sprinklers" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Mon, 21 May 2012 15:01:44 +0000Rich Miller15413 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/maryland-mandates-residential-fire-sprinklers#commentsNFSA gets new presidenthttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/nfsa-gets-new-president
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<div class="field-item even">Former Executive VP Russ Fleming chosen for post</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-04-02T00:00:00-04:00">04/02/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>PATTERSON, N.Y.—Russ Fleming is the new president of the National Fire Sprinkler Association. The NFSA board of directors voted March 2 to select Fleming, formerly NFSA executive VP and a 37-year veteran of the organization, for the post.</p>
<p> “I am, of course, honored to be selected and entrusted with the position,” Fleming told <em>Security Systems News</em>.</p>
<p>Fleming replaced John Viniello, who retired effective March 1 after 28 years on the job. A special NFSA committee formed after Viniello announced his retirement voted Jan. 25 to nominate Fleming as president.</p>
<p>Fleming said one change regarding NFSA that he would like to foster “is a change in perception about the organization itself among those who are currently not members. I will aim for recognition that NFSA works on behalf of all elements of the industry in promotion of the fire sprinkler concept, and welcomes everyone to join it in that effort.”</p>
<p>NFSA created the job of staff president in 1971, Fleming said. “I have had the good fortune to have worked under all three of the previous staff presidents: Ray Casey, Ed Reilly and John Viniello. I have witnessed their various successes and challenges, and look forward to my own. The fire sprinkler industry is a great industry with a product that saves lives and property, an industry that improves the quality of life. I want to help it succeed,” Fleming said.</p>
<p>Asked about his goals as president, Fleming said, “The NFSA has a tremendously talented and motivated staff. … My job as president will be to make sure the staff effectively and efficiently carries out the directives of our board of directors, which in turn is charged to do its best in establishing association policies and programs on behalf of the membership.”</p>
<p>NFSA will be searching for a new executive vice president, Fleming said. “Our board of directors has indicated it will make it a priority to find a new executive vice president, and that it will be open to candidates from the outside as well as within the current staff,” he said.</p>
<p>Fleming said he joined “what was then known as the National Automatic Sprinkler and Fire Control Association in 1975, shortly after receiving my master’s degree in civil engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.”</p>
<p>He said he was “the first engineer hired onto the staff of the association, a move made in recognition of the increasing role played by engineers in the development of codes and standards. When I started, I requested and received the title of director of engineering and standards.” He worked closely with the association’s Engineering and Standards Committee.</p>
<p>Viniello has told SSN that he and Fleming worked together for 25 years, and “in my estimation, he’s the top engineer in the sprinkler industry.”</p>
<p>Fleming said he has served on about 20 technical committees of the National Fire Protection Association, including the NFPA 13 Sprinkler Committee, which he said he has served on since 1978. Fleming said he also has served on committees of the International Standards Organization, the American Water Works Association, and Underwriters Laboratories.</p>
<p>“Committee work has given me a great appreciation for the value of building consensus. … In an association like ours, which is an industry umbrella for manufacturers, suppliers and contractors of all different sizes and types, consensus is the key to success,” he said.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="NFSA gets new president" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:59:19 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15320 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/nfsa-gets-new-president#commentsNFSA gets new presidenthttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/nfsa-gets-new-president
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:created"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:created" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-03-05T00:00:00-05:00">03/05/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>Russ Fleming is the new president of the National Fire Sprinkler Association, following a vote by the organization’s board. Fleming replaces John Viniello, who retired effective the first of this month after 28 years on the job.</p>
<p>The board voted March 2 to select Fleming, the organization’s former executive VP, for the president’s post. A special NFSA committee met Jan. 25 to nominate him, Fleming told me at that time.</p>
<p>I’m trying to reach Fleming to learn more about his goals for the NFSA. I’d also like to learn more about who’s going to be the next executive VP.</p>
<p>Viniello announced Jan. 19 that he planned to retire. “I will turn 70 years of age at the end of February and it’s time to step down. It’s been a great run,” he said in a statement on the NFSA’s website.</p>
<p>Viniello told me he and Fleming had worked together for 25 years and “in my estimation, he’s the top engineer in the sprinkler industry.” Fleming sits on a number of National Fire Protection Association committees, Viniello said.</p>
<p>When asked what his own greatest accomplishment has been on the job, Viniello answered: “Oh, that’s easy. My staff.”</p>
<p>He said that when he became president in 1984, “the association was in dire financial trouble. People were being laid off and I was determined to look at the staff and assess who could get it done and who couldn’t.”</p>
<p>He said the association now has a “terrific” staff of more than 40 people. He said NFSA staff members are the “who’s who in the sprinkler industry. … I’m most proud of the staff that I’ve been able to assemble.”</p>
<p>Viniello said his previous careers included being a school guidance councilor and dean of admissions at Fordham University Lincoln Center Campus in New York City before becoming a regional manager for the NFSA in 1973. “I didn’t know a sprinkler from a water faucet when I first started. I had to learn, and I had a lot of good teachers,” he said.</p>
<p>In 1981, he left NFSA to work for Grinnell Fire Protection as head of their residential fire sprinkler division. “That was before fire sprinklers were really known for protecting homes and I guess I was considered one of the pioneers in that whole technology,” he said. He returned to NFSA to take the job as president.</p>
<p>Here’s more from the NFSA’s website on other votes by the board on March 2:<br /> </p>
<blockquote><p>At its meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, on Friday, March 2, 2012, the NFSA Board of Directors elected the following members to two-year terms as officers, beginning immediately: Chairman, Dennis Coleman, Engineered Fire Protection, St. Louis; Treasurer, James Boulanger, Patriot Fire Protection, Seattle.<br />In addition, the following staff members were elected to officer positions: Russell P. Fleming, President; David J. Vandeyar, Secretary; Fred Barall, Senior Vice President of Industrial Relations; Kenneth E. Isman, P.E., Vice President of Engineering; Buddy Dewar, Vice President of Regional Operations; James F. Lynch, Vice President of Industrial Relations; James D. Lake, Vice President of Training &amp; Education.<br />Two new members were also welcomed to the Board of Directors. Bruce LaRue of Potter Electric was elected as the new Chair of the Supplier and Manufacturers (SAM) Council, a position that carries a seat on the Board. In addition, Buck Buchannan was designated by Globe Fire Sprinkler as their new representative on the Sprinkler Manufacturers Council, and he was among the sprinkler manufacturers elected to a new two-year term on the Board of Directors. Congratulations to all the new officers and Board members!</p></blockquote>
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<span property="dc:title" content="NFSA gets new president" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Mon, 05 Mar 2012 20:22:12 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15256 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/nfsa-gets-new-president#commentsViniello leaving NFSA, but still passionate about the causehttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/viniello-leaving-nfsa-still-passionate-about-cause
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:created"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:created" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2012-01-18T00:00:00-05:00">01/18/2012</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>John Viniello, president of the National Fire Sprinkler Association, is stepping down after 28 years on the job.</p>
<p>In announcement on the Patterson, N.Y.-based organization’s website today, Viniello writes that he’ll retire as of March 1. “I will turn 70 years of age at the end of February and it’s time step down. It’s been a great run.”</p>
<p>He said that Russ Fleming, NFSA’s executive vice president will handle day-to-day association matters until a new president is elected. “I will work with him to insure a smooth transition of responsibilities,” Viniello pledged.</p>
<p>I haven’t met Viniello personally but have interviewed him over the phone on a number of stories. I’ve been impressed with the way he always returns my calls so promptly. I think that’s because he’s so passionate about the need for fire sprinklers that he never wants to miss an opportunity to get publicity for the cause.</p>
<p>A recent letter that he posted on the site is a good example of his passionate feelings about fire sprinklers. It’s an open letter to Chicago media outlets regarding a tragic fire in a high-rise apartment complex in that city last week.</p>
<p>A 32-year-old woman who lived at the Lake Shore Drive building died when she arrived on the 12th floor by elevator after a fire had begun in an apartment belonging to other tenants, the Associated Press reported. The elevator door opened onto an inferno and Shantel McCoy died of carbon monoxide intoxication and inhalation of smoke and soot, the AP said.</p>
<p>McCoy’s mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the companies that manage the building, the AP said. It said the Chicago Sun-Times reported that JoAnn McCoy claims her daughter still would be alive if a sprinkler system had “been in place to put out the Jan. 9 fire.”</p>
<p>Such a tragedy could happen again, Viniello warns in his strongly-worded letter to the editor. Here’s what he wrote:<br /> </p>
<blockquote><p>Elevators stopping at the fire floor…no fire sprinklers installed. Sounds more like the script from the film “The Towering Inferno”. Yet, sadly it happened once again in the City of Chicago. It becomes painfully evident that hundreds of thousands of residents living in high-rise buildings throughout Chicago are at risk of dying in a fire. These “ovens in the sky” will continue to kill or injure Chicagoans, including firefighters, because of a failed administration, including the former and current Mayors and Board of Alderman. They all lack the political will to enact legislation that requires retrofitting these unsafe building with life saving fire sprinkler systems. It is not a question of if it will happen again. It’s a question of when. How high does the “body count” have to get before the city administration becomes proactive rather than reactive? Sadly, those “who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.</p></blockquote>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Viniello leaving NFSA, but still passionate about the cause" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:23:20 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15168 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/viniello-leaving-nfsa-still-passionate-about-cause#commentsIncentivizing fire sprinklers in new homeshttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/incentivizing-fire-sprinklers-new-homes
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<div class="field-item even"> NFSA: Financial incentive laws for sprinklers are life- and cost-saving measures</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2011-12-07T00:00:00-05:00">12/07/2011</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" rel="schema:author dc:creator">Tess Nacelewicz</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>CAPE CORAL, Fla.—A proposed ordinance in this city would give homebuilders a break on city impact fees if they install fire sprinklers in new homes, saving lives and also saving money for taxpayers in the long run, according to the city councilor behind the proposal and the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA).</p>
<p>Similar laws offering incentives for the installation of home fire sprinklers have been enacted around the country by communities and even by the state of Washington, according to Buddy Dewar, VP of regional operations for NFSA. He told <em>Security</em> <em>Systems News</em> that in this down economy, such incentives are the best answer to the homebuilding industry, which has fought against laws requiring home fire sprinklers, saying they’re too costly.<br /> <br />“Passing a law saying, ‘You have no choice: Thou shalt put in a sprinkler system’ is not doable. It’s adding costs, which is reducing the profit margin of the homebuilder, and in this economy, where the sales price is incredibly low because of all the foreclosed properties that are out there, it’s just not a good way to proceed. Giving a financial incentive is a solution, and that’s the road we’re going down,” Dewar told SSN.</p>
<p>Because sprinklers suppress fires at an early stage, they save lives and also save taxpayers money by cutting municipal infrastructure and firefighting costs over time, he said.</p>
<p>Dewar has been pushing the incentive solution in places around the country such as Washington state, where he said a law enacted in the last legislative session waives the fire suppression portion of the impact fee if sprinklers are installed in a new home.</p>
<p>“In many cases that could closely offset, and may even more than offset, the cost of installing the sprinkler system,” Dewar said.</p>
<p>The average price nationally for installing a sprinkler system is $1.61 per square foot, but in some cases the cost is much lower, especially in places where freezing temperatures are not a factor, he said. “I’m seeing places around Scottsdale, Ariz., where they’re installing for under $1 per square foot,” Dewar told SSN.</p>
<p>Altamonte Springs, Fla., is another community that offers a reduction in impact fees when fire sprinklers are installed in new homes, Dewar said.</p>
<p>Cape Coral, a city of 150,000 on the Gulf Coast, will be considering such a measure in 2012, said Chris Chulakes-Leetz, the city councilor who proposed it. He told SSN that in January, a City Council committee will start drafting the ordinance language and then it will go the council for approval.</p>
<p>Chulakes-Leetz, a former paramedic/firefighter, said he had NFSA come to the city this fall to conduct a seminar for city officials about the need for fire sprinklers—which included a side-by-side burn demonstration of unsprinklered and sprinklered rooms—and plans to ask the organization to get involved again at the time of the vote.</p>
<p>He said home values in Cape Coral dropped dramatically in the recession and the city is struggling with reduced revenues. “How do we provide fire coverage without hiring additional firemen, building fire stations and adding capital equipment?” Chulakes-Leetz said. “Well, we support the people who want to put in these [fire sprinkler] systems by getting [city government fees] out of the way.”</p>
<p>Even though reducing impact fees for new homes with sprinklers would mean less in city fee revenues, the city would save much more on not having to add more firefighters and even by reducing water costs, he said. “A fire sprinkler system will suppress a fire with 20 gallons of water,” he said. “A fire department [fighting a fire] will go through 500 gallons of water routinely.”</p>
<p>Chulakes-Leetz said that after the NFSA seminar, a fire official from a nearby community who attended told him that “he’s going to work diligently to make it [a financial incentive for home sprinklers] a county effort instead of just a city effort because he realizes he can’t run his fire department under current revenues. He can’t expand or anything like that. The money’s not there and it’s not going to be for many years to come.”</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Incentivizing fire sprinklers in new homes" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:38:12 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15107 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/incentivizing-fire-sprinklers-new-homes#comments New legislation would promote college fire sprinklershttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/new-legislation-would-promote-college-fire-sprinklers
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<div class="field-item even">The proposed law contains incentives for Greek housing</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2011-11-03T00:00:00-04:00">11/03/2011</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>PATTERSON, N.Y.—A bill to promote fire sprinklers in student housing, including sororities and fraternities, has just been reintroduced in Congress.</p>
<p>The National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA) is highlighting the bill on its web site, saying that the Stephanie Tubbs Jones College Fire Prevention Act has been reintroduced by members of the Ohio delegation: Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, and Rep. Marcia Fudge, D-Cleveland.</p>
<p>According to the NFSA, which is based here, “The act would establish an incentive program within the Department of Education to promote the installation of fire sprinkler systems in qualified student housing. The program will provide competitive matching grants that will fund up to half of the installation costs, with priority given to applicants that demonstrate the greatest financial need. The legislation would reserve at least 10 percent of the funds in the grant program for historically black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions and at least 10 percent of the funds for fraternities and sororities.”</p>
<p>This is actually the seventh time the bill has been introduced in Congress, Ed Comeau, publisher of Campus Firewatch, a monthly, electronic newspaper about campus fire safety, told <em>Security Systems News</em>. However, he said, it’s not atypical for legislation to return repeatedly until it gains enough sponsorship and support for passage. “It’s certainly a life saving type of legislation. You have to keep trying,” he said.</p>
<p>Comeau said it was first introduced in 2000 by then-Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C) following a 2000 dormitory fire at Seton Hall University in New Jersey that killed three students. Comeau said Edwards also was motivated by a fatal fire in 1996 at a fraternity at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.<br />Then, in 2001, Ohio Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones introduced the legislation, Comeau said. She died in 2008 and the bill is named after her.</p>
<p>Comeau said, “In this day and age, any bill that’s calling for money is going to have a tough row to hoe.” But he urged industry members to contact their elected members of Congress to tell them to support the bill, which would cover Greek housing, not just dormitories.</p>
<p>He said that sprinklers recently saved lives in a fire last week at a fraternity near Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich.</p>
<p>News reports cite authorities saying they had to break down doors and rouse drunken students to rescue them from the Oct. 28 blaze. A fire marshal said that there would have been fatalities if sprinklers had not been in the building. “Unquestionably, here’s an example of the effect of sprinklers saving lives,” Comeau said.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content=" New legislation would promote college fire sprinklers" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 03 Nov 2011 16:09:25 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15047 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/new-legislation-would-promote-college-fire-sprinklers#commentsReview begins for fire sprinkler accreditationhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/review-begins-fire-sprinkler-accreditation
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<div class="field-item even">New resi sprinkler accreditation model being beta ested</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:datePublished dc:date"><span class="date-display-single" property="schema:datePublished dc:date" datatype="xsd:dateTime" content="2011-10-13T00:00:00-04:00">10/13/2011</span></div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>CHANTILLY, Va.—An effort to establish a national accreditation process for installers of residential fire sprinklers is being beta tested this fall—potentially paving the way for an accreditation program to be in place next year.</p>
<p>“In the end I’m hopeful that we will have actually developed a residential sprinkler accreditation process because I think it’s very important for the industry as a whole to ensure that we have quality installers,” said Randy Bruegman, fire chief for Anaheim, Calif. and president of the Center for Public Safety Excellence (CPSE), which is based here.</p>
<p>The CPSE, a nonprofit accrediting organization for the fire industry, announced the beta testing phase on Sept. 6. The effort began in the summer of 2010, when the CPSE, the American Fire Sprinkler Association (AFSA), the National Fire Sprinkler Association (NFSA) and the International Code Council created a partnership.</p>
<p>Proposed residential sprinkler legislation in states around the nation has met tough resistance from the home building industry, which opposes sprinkler mandates because they increase the cost of new homes.</p>
<p>Bruegman said that’s unfortunate because “the technology is 99 percent effective” and saves lives.</p>
<p>He cited the combative atmosphere as a reason the members of the new partnership all agreed accrediting installers is necessary.</p>
<p>“The worst thing that could happen is that states adopt [home sprinkler legislation] and then installers of these systems go in and do a poor job of installation,” Bruegman told <em>Security Systems News</em>. “Then we have failures that would just provide ammunition to the building industry.”</p>
<p>So, as the accrediting agency, the CPSE created a Technical Advisory Committee to develop an accreditation model. Now that model will be beta tested, probably beginning this month, with actual installers, according to Ruben Grijalva, former California state fire marshal and project manager for the Residential Fire Sprinkler Installer Accreditation program.</p>
<p>He said the testing will involve six installers of different sizes from different parts of the country. After evaluating the beta testing, the advisory committee will make a recommendation to the CPSE’s board in December. If the board approves an accreditation plan, CPSE will set up a commission, which could be operational by the summer or fall of 2012, Bruegman said.</p>
<p>Jamie Reap, VP of the Lake Forest, Ill.-based United States Alliance Fire Protection, a large regional contractor that is part of the APi Group and is one of the sprinklers installers participating in the beta testing, believes accreditation for installers of residential sprinklers would be a good thing.</p>
<p>“I think that because the entry point for getting into doing that kind of work is so easy that there really is a need to establish a benchmark that separates the quality contractors from what we might call ‘trunk slammers,’” Reap, a member of the advisory committee, told SSN.</p>
<p>He said accreditation also could be a way for installers to boost business if homebuilders recognize their accreditation as “the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval,” and seek out accredited installers.</p>
<p>The advisory committee also included representatives from the NFSA and the AFSA.</p>
<p>Phillip Brown, the AFSA’s director of technical program development &amp; codes, in a statement praised the beta-testing program as an important way “to devise an accreditation program that is meaningful and useful.”</p>
<p>Jim Dalton, NFSA liaison to the committee, said in a statement: “We are confident that, after a suitable period of beta testing in the field, we will be prepared to introduce a national program” that gives everyone “a high level of confidence in these most important life safety systems.”</p>
<p>Grijalva said the beta testing will involve installers filling out an application about such factors as their business policies and training standards regarding residential fire sprinklers. The CPSE will review the application and a site assessment will be done by peers or other experts, he said.</p>
<p>Reap expects the accreditation process will be rigorous. “Only quality companies are going to be able to attain accreditation,” he said.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="Review begins for fire sprinkler accreditation" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:57:28 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15004 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/review-begins-fire-sprinkler-accreditation#commentsNFSA up in the airhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/nfsa-air
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"> <p>A new educational campaign by the National Fire Sprinkler Association intrigued me because the organization is targeting the traveling public to push its message about the need for home fire sprinklers—and taking to the skies to do it.</p>
<p>The Patterson, N.Y.-based NFSA is running an ad in the October issue of AirTran’s in-flight magazine, Go, about the issue.</p>
<p>It depicts a sweet little boy sound asleep in his bed. The words above his head say: “You’ll sleep soundly tonight knowing that your hotel is equipped with fire sprinklers.”</p>
<p>But the ones below his picture ask: “Can you say the same for your family at home?”</p>
<p>According to the NFSA, “each issue of GO is viewed by more than 2 million passengers, making it an excellent vehicle to spread the fire sprinkler message during Fire Prevention Month.”</p>
<p>NFSA president John Viniello told Security Systems News: “We think if people understood the dangers from home fires and recognized how fire sprinklers work, they would demand them.”</p>
<p>He said 3,000 people die each year from fire and 80 percent of those deaths are in the home. “We need to do a much better job of educating people,” he said.</p>
<p>To see the ad, go to <a href="http://www.ink-live.com/emagazines/go-magazine/893/october-2011/" target="_blank">Go magazine</a>.</p> </div>
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<span property="dc:title" content="NFSA up in the air" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 13 Oct 2011 15:14:25 +0000Tess Nacelewicz15002 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/blog/nfsa-air#commentsPA fire sprinkler measure under attackhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/pa-fire-sprinkler-measure-under-attack
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<div class="field-item even">But NFSA predicts eventual requirement of sprinklers in new homes</div>
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<div class="field-item even" property="schema:articleBody content:encoded"><p>PATTERSON, N.Y.—A new Pennsylvania law requiring automatic fire sprinkler systems in all new one- and two-family homes as of Jan. 1 was battling for survival this week in the General Assembly.</p>
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A bill that would allow builders to opt out of the sprinkler requirement and instead require additional fireproofing of floor construction if sprinklers aren’t used won approval in that state’s House of Representatives on March 7 by a margin of nearly 4 to 1. The bill also appeared to have strong support in the Senate, according to observers, and the governor’s stance on the legislation was unclear.</p>
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Buddy Dewar, VP of regional operations for the National Fire Sprinkler Association, told <em>Security Systems News</em> that Pennsylvania legislators are being fed misinformation by homebuilders trying to protect their profits. But Dewar said that even if this legislative battle is lost, the NFSA, which is based here, will keep on providing factual information to lawmakers on the need for home fire sprinklers, and he expects they will eventually become a requirement nationwide.</p>
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“I call this the 10 Years War,” Dewar said. “Within 10 years it’s going to be a requirement in all new homes … It’s in the code and it’s not going to go away.”</p>
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According to the International Residential Code Fire Sprinkler Coalition, “when the International Code Council publishes the 2012 International Residential Code next year, the code will include a requirement for fire sprinklers to be a standard feature in new homes. That requirement was initially added to the IRC in the 2009 edition, and ICC's members soundly rejected efforts by the National Association of Home Builders to have the requirement repealed in 2012.”</p>
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States either use the IRC or a code similar to it, Dewar said.</p>
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Last year, Pennsylvania and California adopted the 2009 versions of the IRC and became the first two states to require automatic sprinkler systems in new one- and two-family homes as of Jan. 1 this year.</p>
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Now, new legislation in California would delay implementation of the sprinkler law there for a couple of years, Dewar said.</p>
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But he said there has been no strong effort from California homebuilders to overturn the law there because individual communities there have already tested the sprinkler requirement and found it works. “The difference between California and Pennsylvania is that California has 162 cities, all high growth rate cities, that have had a sprinkler requirement for decades so there’s a track record of no fire deaths on those properties and a track record of 80-85 percent less damage in those properties,” Dewar said.</p>
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In Pennsylvania, he said, homebuilder sprinkler opponents are using such misinformation as saying sprinkler systems would cost $20,000 or more and stop the recovery of the housing market. But a national study puts the cost of a home sprinkler system at $1.61 per square foot and Dewar believes it could be as low as $1.25 per square foot in Pennsylvania, or $2,500 for a 2,000-square-foot home.</p>
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He said the homebuilders have persuaded most legislators to favor the bill allowing a sprinkler opt-out, HB 377. “It has strong support based on misinformation,” Dewar said.</p>
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Republican state Rep. Garth Everett, who sponsored the bill, said he and other lawmakers are concerned about such factors as additional sprinkler costs for homes in rural areas that have wells. He said the bill has additional fire protection requirements for pre-engineered beams, a concern of firefighters, and that homeowners still have the option of choosing sprinkler systems if they want them.</p>
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But Dewar said lawmakers are listening to builders telling them: “We want the right to build buildings in non-compliance with the national codes.”</p>
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Select Security, an alarm company based in Lancaster, Pa., saw Pennsylvania’s new Jan. 1 residential sprinkler requirement as an opportunity to buy a sprinkler company last fall. [<a href="http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/super-regional-aims-increase-rmr-sprinklers]">http://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/super-regional-aims-increase-...</a></p>
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Thomas Perry, general manager of Fire Systems Integrated, Select Security’s new sprinkler division, told SSN he has been battling the “factually incorrect” campaign of homebuilders for more than year, including doing interviews on television and radio. </p>
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He said if the state sprinkler requirement is overturned, it won’t affect the company much because the division was already a well established business before Select Security bought it. However, Perry said, some sprinkler companies had counted on the business the new law would generate. “I think probably there were quite a few companies that geared up for this,” he said.</p>
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Dewar predicted that lawsuits filed by homeowners for loss of life and property damage from fires in unsprinklered homes will eventually lead to states mandating home sprinklers.</p>
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“I used to be the state fire marshal for the state of Florida and have been involved in codes for decades and I remember when the homebuilders opposed smoke detectors and ground fault circuit interrupters, both safety items,” Dewar said. “And it wasn’t until there were some lawsuits filed that they finally embraced the concept, so we’re going to see the same thing here with the sprinklers systems.”</p>
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<span property="dc:title" content="PA fire sprinkler measure under attack" class="rdf-meta element-hidden"></span>Thu, 10 Mar 2011 15:04:18 +0000legacy_editor14467 at http://www.securitysystemsnews.comhttp://www.securitysystemsnews.com/article/pa-fire-sprinkler-measure-under-attack#comments